This weekend I have switched up for some light reading. I found a really interesting book that I heard about on the radio recently. Called "The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University", it follws a Brown University Sophomore who goes spends a Semester at Jerry Fallwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA.
Rather than go to Europe for a Semester, or spend a semester at sea, like so many of his cohorts in college, the author reasons, "Why go to learn about a culture in another country when there is one in this country that I know nothing about?"
So he tries to live with and understand Evangelical Christians, while being a very very marginal Quaker himself (realistically, he admits he's basically non-Christian).
The most fascinating thing that happens repeatedly in the story, is how the author feels attracted to parts of the Chirstian message, but is turned off by some frankly un-Christian behavior. He doesn't always recognize the behavior as being specifically un-Christian, which doubles the damage becasue he then thinks that this is what Christians believe, or sees the hypocrisy of certain things as being part of Christianity.
If anthing, the book is an interesting cautionary tale of how the merits of Christ are judged by the (in)actions of his followers. But also, the most attractive and mysterious of his Christian friends is one guy who consistently and always is filled with the joy of being Christian. That joy was warm enough to melt the author's heart enough to plant a seed...
Rather than go to Europe for a Semester, or spend a semester at sea, like so many of his cohorts in college, the author reasons, "Why go to learn about a culture in another country when there is one in this country that I know nothing about?"
So he tries to live with and understand Evangelical Christians, while being a very very marginal Quaker himself (realistically, he admits he's basically non-Christian).
The most fascinating thing that happens repeatedly in the story, is how the author feels attracted to parts of the Chirstian message, but is turned off by some frankly un-Christian behavior. He doesn't always recognize the behavior as being specifically un-Christian, which doubles the damage becasue he then thinks that this is what Christians believe, or sees the hypocrisy of certain things as being part of Christianity.
If anthing, the book is an interesting cautionary tale of how the merits of Christ are judged by the (in)actions of his followers. But also, the most attractive and mysterious of his Christian friends is one guy who consistently and always is filled with the joy of being Christian. That joy was warm enough to melt the author's heart enough to plant a seed...
